Thursday, June 29, 2017

It is a symptom of the denial and willful ignorance that blankets the present age that this book even had to be written, and that Ibn Warraq, a historian and social theorist of preeminent insight and wisdom, should have had to devote his considerable talents to it.

Nonetheless, we can be grateful that he has given us The Islam in Islamic Terrorism: The Importance of Beliefs, Ideas, and Ideology, as this book is breathtakingly comprehensive despite its quite manageable length, and is, quite simply, irrefutable. If there remains in the world anyone who holds that Islam is a Religion of Peace and yet has sufficient intellectual honesty and acumen to consider these arguments on their merits, this is the book to give.

First there is the necessary work of clearing away the nonsense. Ibn Warraq takes up each of the major excuses that are commonly given for Islamic jihad violence -- that it is all about Israel, or all about U.S. foreign policy, or all about poverty and lack of opportunity -- and shows why each does not and cannot sufficiently explain the phenomenon at hand.

(Office of the Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei)
(CNSNews.com) - Speaking Monday on the occasion of Eid al Fitr, the Muslim feast marking the end of the month of Ramadan, the Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, Iran’s so-called “Leader of the Islamic Revolution,” declared that all Muslims “are duty bound” to carry out Jihad against Israel—which he referred to as “the Zionist regime.”

“Unity and avoiding division benefits all Muslim countries and through harmony over the issue of Palestine as the foremost problem of the Muslim world, it must be prevented from being diminished or forgotten,” the ayatollah said, according to a statement about the speech posted on the ayatollah's English-language website.

“Palestine is the foremost issue of the Muslim world, but some Muslim countries act in such a way that is meant to make the issue of Palestine ignored and forgotten,” he said.

“According to Islamic jurisprudence,” said the ayatollah, “once faced with the domination of the enemy over Islamic territory, all Muslims are duty-bound to campaign and carry out jihad in whatever possible form and, therefore, fighting against the Zionist regime is incumbent upon and mandatory for the entire Islamic world.”

Monday, June 26, 2017

769 earthquakes were recorded at Yellowstone over the last two weeks, raising concerns among seismologists that a catastrophic eruption may be brewing, and could hit sooner rather than later.

One quake measured over four on the Richter scale, five measured in the magnitude three range, 64 in the magnitude two range, and the other 699 have been measured at magnitude one or less.

Researchers from the University of Utah at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), said to the Star Valley Independent, “This is the highest number of earthquakes at Yellowstone within a single week in the past five years,” adding, “Seismic activity at volcanoes can signal an eruption is due to take place, although predicting exactly when a volcano will erupt is, at present, impossible.”

Increased seismic activity is described explicitly in the prophets as accompanying the End-of-Days.

“I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; and at the heavens, and their light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away…” (Jeremiah 4:23-28)

Today Kuwait handed Qatar a list of demands from other Arab countries -- many of them American allies -- demanding the end of support for terrorist organizations:

One of the cardinal demands is that Qatar stop funding the Muslim Brotherhood, a demand that was made clear when this crisis erupted earlier this month...

...Interestingly, in addition to Qatar's funding of the Muslim Brotherhood efforts to destabilize Arab countries throughout the Middle East, the country ensured that it would not be threatened by dismantling Brotherhood operations inside Qatar decades ago...

Over the weekend, there were earthquakes on either end of the San Andreas Fault system, highlighting the tips of two great earthquakes. In Northern California, a M=4.0 quake near the Mendocino Triple Junction marks the terminus of the 1906 M=7.9 earthquake which devastated San Francisco. In Southern California, a M=3.5 earthquake just east of San Bernardino is the southern end of the 1812 M=7.5 Wrightwood earthquake that killed 40 people in a church in San Juan Capistrano over 100 km away. While neither of the quakes over the weekend were large enough to cause damage, there were both felt, and because of the importance of their locations, deserve attention.

Police said Monday they are not investigating the murder of a Virginia teenager who they say was assaulted and then disappeared overnight after leaving a mosque in the Sterling area as a hate crime.

On Sunday, police found the girl’s remains and a 22-year-old man has been charged with murder in connection with the case.

The mosque, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling, and relatives identified the girl as 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen of Reston.

Fairfax County police identified the man charged with murder in her death as Darwin Martinez Torres of Sterling. On Monday, they did not release any explanation as to why they weren’t investigating the murder as a hate crime.

According to accounts from police and a mosque official, a group of four or five teens were walking back from breakfast at IHOP early Sunday when they were confronted by a motorist. All but one of the teens ran to the mosque, where the group reported that the girl had been left behind, according to Deputy Aleksandra Kowalski, a spokeswoman for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

The western coast of Greenland has been struck with a 4.0 magnitude earthquake, triggering a tsunami that swept away several houses in coastal villages. At least four people are feared missing, as a rescue mission in the village hardest hit by waves is under way, local police reports.

The settlement of Nuugaatsiaq suffered the most, with 11 houses being washed away and the community being left with no electricity. With a registered population of 101, 78 people have been evacuated to the town of Uummannaq, the Greenlandic Broadcasting Corporation (KNR) reported, citing police officials.

ROME, June 13, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) -- Among the 45 new members Pope Francis has appointed to the Pontifical Academy for Life is an Anglican minister who has argued that abortion should be legal until “18 weeks after conception.”

University of Oxford Professor Nigel Biggar, who was appointed to the Academy for a five-year term, stated in a 2011 dialogue with pro-infanticide ethicist Peter Singer that a preborn baby is “not…the same kind of thing as an adult or a mature human being” and therefore does not deserve “quite the same treatment.”

“I would be inclined to draw the line for abortion at 18 weeks after conception, which is roughly about the earliest time when there is some evidence of brain activity, and therefore of consciousness,” he said as reported by Standpoint magazine.

Then, one year later, when he was the keynote speaker for an event at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, he said that "it is not true that all abortion is equivalent to murder."

When LifeSiteNews asked Biggar if his appointment to the Academy indicated that the Church under Francis is shifting gears on abortion, he said that as someone who is not Roman Catholic, he did not think it appropriate to comment on the Church's position.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

An official Taliban spokesman described jihad as “obligatory worship” and said that there would be no cease-fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The spokesman’s stance is consistent with Taliban policy.

“Our fight is Jihad & obligatory worship, reward for every obligatory act of worship is multiplied x70 in #Ramadan,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on his official Twitter account on May 27, the official start of the Ramadan holiday.

“Calls for stopping Jihad in this holy month is ignorance of religion. Hurting civilians during #Ramadan & otherwise is a crime,” he continued in a separate tweet.

Mujahid’s stance on fighting during Ramadan is consistent with past statements. In 2013, while disputing a hack on Voice of Jihad that called for a cease-fire, Mujahid said the group would continue fighting.

“During the holy month of Ramadan, jihad has major rewards. And mujahideen will continue to employ all their fighting techniques to mount attacks on the enemy,” [Mujahid] said, according to Reuters.

LONDON — Seven people died and nearly 50 were injured when a terrorist attack unfolded in the heart of the British capital on Saturday night.

Officials said a vehicle barreled into pedestrians on London Bridge, and then three attackers embarked on a stabbing rampage at nearby Borough Market.

In the wake of the attack, British Prime Minister Theresa May said "things must change" when it comes to counter-terrorism policies.

"We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are," she told reporters outside her official residence on Sunday. "There is — to be frank — far too much tolerance of extremism in our country."

The incident was reported at 10:08 p.m. (5:08 p.m. ET) on Saturday. Within eight minutes, all of the suspects had been fatally shot by officers, according to authorities.

"The use of terror under this doctrine [Targhib wal tarhib, "luring and terrorizing"] is a legitimate sharia obligation." — Salman Al Awda, mainstream Muslim sheikh, on the Al Jazeera television show "Sharia and Life".

Part of the tarhib or "terrorizing" side of this doctrine is to make a cruel example of those who do not comply with the requirements of Islam. That is the reason Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, and entities such as ISIS, intentionally hold ceremonial public beheadings, floggings, and amputation of limbs.

Islamic jihad has always counted on people in conquered lands eventually to yield, give up and accept terrorism as part of life, similar to natural disasters, earthquakes and floods.

After terror attacks, we often hear from Western media and politicians that we must accept terrorist attacks as the "new normal."

For Western citizens, this phrase is dangerous.

Islam's doctrine of jihad, expansion and dawah (Islamic outreach, proselytizing) rely heavily on the use of both terror and luring. Targhib wal tarhib is an Islamic doctrine that means "seducing (luring) and terrorizing" as a tool for dawah, to conquer nations and force citizens to submit to Islamic law, sharia. It amounts to manipulating the instinctive parts of the human brain with extreme opposing pressures of pleasure and pain -- rewarding, then severely punishing -- to brainwash people into complying with Islam.

Most ordinary Muslims are not even aware of this doctrine, but Islamic books have been written about it. Mainstream Muslim sheikhs such as Salman Al Awda have discussed it on Al Jazeera TV. On a show called "Sharia and Life," Al Awda recommended using extremes "to exaggerate... reward and punishment, morally and materially... in both directions". "The use of terror under this doctrine,"' he said, "is a legitimate sharia obligation."